Best Babysitter

Being that I'm quite near the finish line of this pregnancy a good babysitter is such a treasure.
Noelle started a new session of swimming lessons and I couldn't bring myself to enroll in parent-tot with Sydney for two more weeks. Getting three of us ready is rough, but putting a swimsuit on over my enormous belly is down right pathetic. So in my attempt to keep summer interesting for Noelle I kept her in swimming and hired a babysitter for Sis during that time. It was heaven to sit for 30 plus minutes without a child climbing on me or nearly dying of heat stroke while strapped in the stroller.
Then the babysitter stayed and had lunch with us and played with my girls as a waddled around the house getting things accomplished. My kids love her, I love her. Win-win situation. Did I mention she walks to and from my house?
I might cry when she moves.

April 2011

Well folks May is nearly over and I thought I'd let you know what we did in April. These pictures are in reverse order, but you'll get the general idea.

Near the end of April I (Rachel) went to Holland!

What would a trip to Holland be with out some of the following country features?

Windmills anyone? This is looking up one of the canals at Kinderdijk. It happened to be very windy this day and we witnessed up close how fast the blades on a windmill can turn.

We got to visit with some of our favorite people who also happen to be relatives.

How about these lovely ladies? It was fun to be with cousins, even the famous one.

How cute is my Sissy?

There can never be enough tulips. We drove by many fields that were ablaze with color and then the next day they were gone. That's how they roll at the end up the tulip season.

My grandmother's family home in Breukelen.

Its been for sale if you have a few million laying around.

All of us together for dinner.

Can you seriously get over the tulips?

I brought home some crowns for the girls so that we could celebrate Queen's Day on April 30th. Happy birthday Queen Beatrix!

This was the last play group at our house, just before Easter. We had an egg hunt in our backyard while wearing dress-ups. What a fun time we've had with these girls.

I made some cowboy quilts. I did a trade with a photographer back in February and over the two or so months it took me to complete these it was really hard to pack them up and mail them off. Luckily they love them as much as I do. We assembled a shed, and the garden that we planted at the end of March began to grow. It looks a lot different now that it resembles a jungle. Maybe I'll post an update in my May post.

I celebrated my birthday. Each candle on the cake represents four years of my life.

Happy birthday to me!

Noelle Had a Birthday, Shout Hooray!

That's right folks, she made it to the fifth year of life without major incident. Its hard to believe myself. This girl is one big ball of fiery energy that keeps all of us on our toes. Don't be fooled by her silliness and charm because before you know it she'll be telling you how lame your fashion choices are and how uncool you've become overnight. Some things that make Noelle special to us besides all her wit are as follows: She is so stinkin' smart, I had to buy a Human Body book for kids so that she and I could learn together. She's quite the artist and leaves her sketches, notes, stories and all other written things all over the house. She loves to draw girls with fancy dresses and high heeled shoes and recently has been having me cut out fish so that she can illustrate each one with its own personality. She then stuffs them into an envelope and asks me to mail them to various people. My favorite was the one with a "backpack" and falling out of that backpack is a bear. There was a very elaborate story to go with the backpack fish. Noelle loves to make up songs. Just today in the car she was singing a song about leprechauns and how they will mess up your hair and your room. I tried to catch it all from the front seat of the car and laughed the whole way. Lately she has started playing with Sydney more. This makes Boo and I both very happy considering just six months ago she was still asking when we planned to return her sister to the doctors who "got her out." The best is watching them together on the swing set, it makes my little mother heart swell. Noelle still loves to dance and still loves those darn tap shoes. I have to set a timer for tapping so that we can all keep our sanity around here. Sometimes it works. Noelle is very, very excited to go to kindergarten, however she feels the need to explain to anyone who asks her about it that she will indeed need to have some shots or vaccinations done before she can go and that after this she'll be done with shots forever. If only it were really true. Five has been a long time coming for her and now that it has arrived it seems she thinks she has the power to do even more amazing things. Our dear Noelle, we are so excited for you to learn a lot more things that hopefully include tying your own shoes and riding your bike without training wheels. Swimming wouldn't be so bad either. However those are just a smidgen of the things you will embrace in the next year or so. Thank you for your sense of humor that keeps Dad and I on our toes. Hopefully you'll never take life so serious that you can't have a good laugh. We sure love your guts even if they do stink from time to time.

Here are some birthday party extravaganza pictures that pretty much sum up the birthday experience at our house. (in no particular order.)

We decorated the yard with many balloons and after the festivities one of the highlights was to gather them all together and run laps around the yard. It was also a game of keep-away from Sydney and Jackson.

Every year Noelle request some sort of bubble maker. This one was pretty awesome.

Here are the parting gifts for our birthday guests. Man did they make out like bandits.

Noelle and her friends sat in a big circle for the gift exchanging. Sis did her best to be in the middle of the action as much as possible.

Sydney thoroughly enjoyed the party, especially the cake, until Jackson came along and wanted some too.

After a fight broke out over the spoon which he won, Sis retaliated by rubbing her cakey hands in his hair. It was hilarious.

We played some fun games to make all our guest tired including sack racing, go old fashion foot races the length of the yard, poisonous snake (jumping over a rope), a pinata, and pin the tail on the donkey. Some kids were in it to win it, and other chose to stand on the sidelines and spectate.

The party riff-raff

Happy birthday Noelle.

Happy Valentine's Day

My cute girlies

My girls had their picture taken last week. Check out the Yellow Pear Photography blog for a little preview.

What We Did for Christmas

Christmas was good. We traveled up to Utah to see our family and to surprise one of our Papas. I'm pretty sure he was surprised by the look on his face when he answered the door. It was a treat for him to have all his family together for Christmas since its been a few years since we've all been together during the holidays.

On Christmas Eve, while Noelle was sleeping and dreaming of the presents she was going to open, Santa brought her some great things in her stocking and while he was putting out the gifts he thought he'd better check to make sure Noelle was asleep. Sure enough, she was and Santa was kind enough to cover her up with her special silky blankets.

Noelle was especially delighted with the set of markers she found in her stocking. She's been using them since. We decided that we should store the chocolate from all our stockings and ration it out from time to time. Noelle even tried to convince her Grammy who was at our house that it would be okay since mom was gone to get the chocolate down from the closet.

During our Christmas vacation our girls did a fair amount of sleeping in coats, in the car. We're not used to wearing big coats and I think Sis thought it might just be a sleeping bag.
Our girls also spent some time with their cousins. This is just an example of how much fun it can be. You can't tell from this picture, but Jackson on the other hand was not having all that much fun. Poor guy.

Next year we're going to suggest that Santa bring Sis a bucket. She had more fun playing with a bucket on her head than she did with any of the toys she was given. Isn't that always the case?

We were glad to have had the chance to spend the holidays with our families despite the long drive. We're glad to have missed any major storms during our travels and maybe we'll come again in a few years...maybe.

Christmas Cards

There's a first time for everything, right? This is the first year we've put our Christmas card online in a digital format. My first attempt was a total fail. So here we go again.

If I had mailed a little letter with our Christmas card this is what it might have said.

Albertsen Family Follies of 2010

Putting in a backyard for the first time and ordering a little too much rock only to realize you wish you had done a few things differently and now you want to remove some of the said rock and get more of a different kind.

Getting a dog.

Barbie doll cake.

Loosing the dog while on vacation in another state and not keeping his collar on at all times.

One year old climbing on everything...and falling off everything.

Tap shoes.

Four year old dance class.

Christmas lights on our house.

Attempting to post my Christmas card online.

This is just a highlight of the things we look back on and might do differently. 2010 has been a good year of family trips, visits from family and friends, the graduation from infancy to toddlerhood, and learning to read just to name a few.

We do our best to be aware of the blessings around us and are so grateful for the experiences we've had over the past twelve months. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.

Christmas Spirit

Aint no party like a ward Christmas party, or something like that. We got it done early and mostly painlessly. They had two photo opportunities. One room was set up with a backdrop for family pictures and then when Santa came the kids could get a picture with him. Right before it was our turn for family pictures Noelle disappeared into the pack of kids that run amuck at all ward party function. She was soon returned crying with report that she fell. As usual we underplayed it and told her she was fine, but I had to give Boo the "look" because she had a bloody lip and we didn't need wailing to ensue right before we had to take a picture. Crisis averted from underplaying the situation. Thank goodness.

We sang some Christmas carols, had a couple narrators and other musical numbers. By far my favorite was the twin 13 year old boys that played an awesome piano duet. I hope my kids play the piano some day. After the program the special guest arrived. I think Noelle may have gone through the line more than twice. I only know of two times, but it could have been more. Look at her posing with Santa. So funny.

We weren't sure how Sis would do, but she didn't mind Santa. She told him a few things that only magic Santa ears would be able to interpret.

She even did well sitting with Santa alone, until he started creeping her out. I really couldn't blame her.

Santa looks like he's handing her off because she stinks or something. So funny. Hope you all make it to see Santa. And I especially hope that Santa brings Noelle the AquaSand. She wanted it for her birthday and we mysteriously forgot to buy it, so we told her to ask Santa for it. That was in March. She's been holding out hope for a long time and has yet to divert from that gift idea.

Putting it all together

Noelle: "Is auntie your sister and uncle Daniel is your brother?"
Me: "Yep."
Noelle: "Oh, so just like Reggie is my brother and Sydney is my sister?"
Me: "Yeah."
Noelle: "Oh, I think everyone should have a brother and a sister."


Or a dog.

Thank Goodness for These Girls

In this month of thanks, I should not forget how happy I am for these little girls, but mostly their moms. Every week we have a little play group for two and half hours and it is by far the highlight of my week. I also love that there is actually a span of ages here so they don't get to see much each other at preschool or church and it makes playgroup that much better. Thanks for playing each week and giving the moms a small break.

GO UTES!

Ever since our departure from Utah in 2003 we've been the minority Utah fans and you know what that's a hard role to assume. Mostly because the people who care are BYU fans and they tend to be SO hardcore that they must tell us several times over that its a good thing we were friends before they knew we went to the U. (no lie, I've gotten this on several occasions, no matter where we've lived.) So in my non-anti-BYU way, I really hope that Utah wins today and the next week and the next. I will wear my red dress on Sunday in support and not get crazy in any BYU fans' faces or make up any excuses as to why my team might be better. You know why? Because I won't have to.

Things to be Thankful For

Last Day of Animal Class

For the last installment of animal class the theme was 'Animals of unusual size or color.' So let's start down the list of things we saw and touched.

First up, a blond skunk. So strange. It had the reflex to put its tail up when frightened, but rest assured the stink glands were removed. Interesting tid bit, there is no vaccine for skunks against rabies, therefore they couldn't let this skunk roam around the room freely for precautionary purposes.

Now I know you can't tell by this high quality picture I took that this is no ordinary rabbit. No sir, this is a Flemish Giant Rabbit, which can easily reach 30 pounds. That's about the same size as my four year old. There were two and they were only eight months old and they were big.

Noelle is holding a floppy ear rabbit that was the nicest little thing. Much better than the nasty guinea pigs.

Sis was a good helper at brushing the bunny. She was so gentle and very fixated on that activity.


She would do a couple of brush strokes for the bunny and then a couple for herself and then back to the bunny. Reminded me of Noelle in the goat pen at the Phoenix Zoo a couple years ago.

Last but not least, this strange lizard named Raspberry. I can't remember what kind it is, but I know it stores water in its cheek pockets and fat in the belly pockets. And of course Noelle was all over the slimy creature. Definitely not a trait she got from me.

There were many new guinea pigs to hold and cry over as well as two very mischievous white ferrets. Apparently they're famous, but it wasn't a movie I was familiar with.